China plans first spacewalk

BEIJING -- From a secretive desert town in China's northwest, the country will launch its third manned spaceflight today, which will feature the nation's first spacewalk.

Chinese television will broadcast the takeoff from the Jiuquan satellite launch center in Gansu province, as well as the spacewalk, for the public to view another milestone soon after last month's Olympic Games in Beijing.

Russian technicians will provide support for the spacewalk during the Shenzhou 7 mission, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Two of the three taikonauts on board will suit up, but only one will step into space for about 40 minutes, 213 miles above Earth. The spacewalk could be Friday or Saturday.

"We are confident, determined and able to take the first step of Chinese people in space," astronaut Jin Haipeng said Wednesday. Jin and the two other astronauts — including Zhai Zhigang, who is likely to make the spacewalk — are fighter pilots, all age 42, and have lived and trained together for the past decade.

China's "Divine Vessel" spacecraft, powered by China's Long March rockets, will blast off at 9 a.m. today ET (9 p.m. today in China), weather permitting, for a mission that will last three to five days.

The Shenzhou 7 is scheduled to land in the central area of Inner Mongolia in northern China.

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The spacewalk marks a milestone in China's fast-developing space program, a multimillion-dollar, military-backed operation that has excited this nation of 1.3 billion people, and whose secrecy has worried NASA and China's neighbors.

Chinese officials deny any military purpose to its space program.

"So far, China's manned space program hasn't carried out a single military task," said Cui Jijun, director of the Jiuquan center, according to Xinhua. Cui said the manned space program is scientific exploration that could boost technology and innovation.

In the 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong complained that China could not even shoot a potato into space, but the nation has caught up quickly in recent years.